Week in Weed: Spotify versus Potify, first pot shop at a Canadian airport, and how this ancient empire's secret to success was hallucinogenic beer

A  small airport in B.C. is in the news for all the right reasons.

Creative offerings in the cannabis space are worth spotlighting for being innovative in an industry riddled with regulatory hurdles.

The ‘cool innovation’ category at Ontario Cannabis Store, the province’s sole legal online retailer, celebrates just that. The category lists new products added last year. From Epsom salts to beard oil , not all of the 24 products are listed below but here are some that might pique interest.

Infused white sugar: Produced in Alberta , the product can be used in tea, coffee, or any other hot or cold beverages. Each package equals 1 tsp of sugar and costs $3.75.

Relief pods:  These suppositories are designed by  Alberta-based Prairie Grass  and can be used vaginally and rectally. A pack costs $38.75 and delivers 10 mg of  full-spectrum THC.

Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce:  This  sweet and spicy offering  packs a punch with 10 mg THC. The product is a collab between  Heartbeat Hot Sauce Co.  from Thunder Bay, and edibles-maker  Bogart’s Kitchen  and costs $12.75

Spotify versus Potify

An attempt to register ‘Potify’ as a trademark for a weed delivery app didn’t go as planned as the name was too “striking similar,” reads a decision by the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in favour of the streaming behemoth, Spotify.

“Because the marks are so similar in how they look and sound, and in their structure, cadence and essential nature, applicant’s mark will cause consumers to ‘conjure up’ the opposer’s famous mark, and ‘associate the two.'”

The weed company can still use the name in the future but is not allowed to trademark the handle.

Buzz of the Week

Two cannabis compounds have shown promise to both prevent and treat coronavirus infections.

Study lead Richard van Breemen reports that the two compounds can be easily found in hemp and hemp extracts. But they are not meant to be smoked, cautions Chris Roberts in a Forbes article. 

Psychedelics in history 

Hallucinogenic beer may have helped an ancient South American empire rule, recent findings published by the Cambridge University Press suggest.

Archaeological deposits collected from the Quilcapampa site in southern Peru revealed the presence of vilca seeds that are psychoactive in nature. The same deposits also confirmed the presence of Schinus molle, which was used to make a beer-like beverage.

The belief is that the two substances combined together were consumed at feasts and the “resulting psychotropic experience reinforced the power of the Wari state, and represents an intermediate step between exclusionary and corporate political strategies,” reports TGO’s Sam Riches, quoting the research published in the academic journal, Antiquity on Jan. 12